Fly Me To The Moon

I stumbled upon a quote that has really made me think, in fact, I find myself reading it over and over because there is a real truth that lies within.

QUOTE: "If you examine a butterfly according to the laws of aerodynamics, it shouldn't be able to fly. But the butterfly doesn't know that, so it flies." ~Vincent Eades~

In the west, we have become masters of reduction. We love to tear things apart, study how it works, and reduce it to a set of principles and mathematical equations. In one sense we are programed for this because God has put a sense of curiosity in each of us, but in another sense it serves to take the mystery and wonder out of life.

As believers, I think we sometimes do this in our relationship with Christ. We love to study theology, which is the nature of God, however, when we make the mistake of reducing God down to set of theological principles, we miss the point all together.

Now, I will say that theology has it's place, in that it gives us a foundation and a sense of boundaries that keeps us from veering too far off the beaten path, but what we have to remember is that theology is never the point. It can't be, because God is infinite and our knowledge or theology of him is finite. When we make it the point, we've reduced him down to our level and when that happens, we fail to fly into all that He has for us.

I think so much of our modern day preaching and teaching has this feeling to it. We've all heard it before...if you do a, b, & c, you'll get d, e, & f. Sounds fair enough, but here's my question...who of us really wants to serve a God who is limited to our formulas?

Formulas reduce capital G God down to lowercase g god, and he's not interested in being lowercase g god to you and me, so when we try to reduce him, he messes up our world big time.

When we reduce God we let religion take over, and religion has a way of stealing your wings. However, when we find ourself in true relationship with God, we will fly to greater and greater heights with him.

In Acts 17:28 Paul says "It's in him we live and move and have our being." It's in him, not our knowledge of him or our formulas of him, but in him.

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What Do You Fear?

I have this memory from childhood that has been permanently etched on my brain. It includes a bicycle, a huge dog, and one very scared kid (me).

Here's how it happened...My sister and I were going for a long bike ride around the block (we lived in the country and so our block was about 5 miles long). As we were riding a very big German Shepherd came charging at us.

He was a vicious dog, teeth as long and sharp as framing nails and dog spit flying everywhere when he barked. As you can imagine, I was scared out of my mind.

That dog never bit me or my sister, however he did keep us cornered for what seemed like an hour, although I'm sure it was only 2 or 3 minutes (it's these kind of memories that makes me think God has a slow motion button).

I remember someone telling me that the reason that dog kept us cornered is because he could sense our fear and used it to get the upper hand (or paw for that matter) on us. Now, I'm no dog expert and frankly I'm not sure if this is true, but the theory does lend itself to a great life lesson.

Here's the lesson...what you fear in life will determine how free you are, because fear is what establishes the boundaries of your freedom.

When that big dog had me cornered and I was scared out of my mind, my free space was limited to about 2 square feet.

This is why God doesn't want us to fear anything in life but Him. When we fear God, He, in his love and grace, doesn't control us, but sets us free to really live.

Erwin McManus, in his book "the Barbarian Way" says, "When we fear God and God only, we are no longer bound by all of the other fears that would hold us captive...we discover that perfect love casts out all fear. Not even God will hold us or control us by fear. When we fear Him, we in essence begin to live a life where we are fearless."

What is your deepest fear, and how is it keeping you from the freedom that Christ intends for you?



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